Writers

(asked on 15th April 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps the Government is taking to support professional writers.


Answered by
Caroline Dinenage Portrait
Caroline Dinenage
This question was answered on 20th April 2021

A thriving UK publishing industry is crucial to support the development of professional writers. We know that the Covid-19 pandemic presents a significant challenge to the publishing industry. The Government’s response has been one of the most generous and comprehensive in the world, including the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme and the Bounceback Loan Scheme and business rates reliefs. The publishing sector has also benefited from the government's introduction of a zero rate of VAT to e-publications, which will make it clear e-publications are entitled to the same VAT treatment as their physical counterparts.

In terms of direct support for authors, Arts Council England’s (ACE) ‘time-to-write’ grants are a vital source of funding that allow authors to dedicate time to the completion of manuscripts. Authors also receive support via ACE's Developing Your Creative Practice Fund, which was designed with the expectation that writers would be among the beneficiaries.

In addition, over the course of the pandemic, ACE contributed £400,000 to the Society of Authors’ ‘Authors Emergency Fund’, in order to ensure that authors whose income had been decimated by the pandemic were able to remain active in their discipline.

The Government also maintains a strong legal framework to protect the rights and interests of writers, including through copyright and the Public Lending Right.

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